Legendary Cary Audio tube pre-amp can now be subject to a massive upgrade (‘Ultimate Upgrade’). Steve Huff, a professional photographer and serious tube amp audiophile, decided to reach out to Cary Audio to get some hands-on experience with the updated pre.
What does the ‘Ultimate Upgrade’ actually do to this classic pre-amp? Well, it is a gentle but effective component revision and soup-up which while preserving the original sonic signature also enhances its sound in many directions. The power supply will now have new smoothing capacitors with huge increase in filtering (extra 1200 µF) on B+ rail (high voltage), new big electrolytics are bypassed by quality polypropylene caps. The line stage will enjoy new metal-film precision (1%) resistors manufactured by Vishay in plate load and cathode circuit. Finally all coupling capacitors (10 of them) are now top grade Mundorf MCaps. Again: the aim of this upgrade is to elevate the SLP-05 to a whole other level of sound quality while retaining the attributes of the SLP-05 that you know and love.
Watch this video where Steve Huff explains the workings of Ultimate Upgrade or read his full review on his website stevehuffphoto.com.
Steve Huff Photo & HiFi (YouTube channel)
